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For Alice Cooper, School's Still Out
(Washington Post, 1999-10-07)

Alice Cooper and his trend-setting brand of rock-and-roll theater--Grand Guignol with a big beat--haven't gotten smaller since the '70s; only the stage itself has. At the 9:30 club on Tuesday, Cooper seemed gleefully impervious to the club's narrower confines, and though he left some of his fans' favorite props at home--no guillotine, no gallows and just a cameo by the electric chair--he brought along an amusement-park fun house set (clowns included) and a few discreet costume changes, along with a tight band and a playlist featuring most of his best songs. From the opening "Hello Hooray" to a gleeful encore of "Under My Wheels," Cooper served as ringmaster, preacher, snake oil salesman and unrepentant rock provocateur. It's not his fault that things that were entertainly shocking 25 years ago are now merely entertaining....

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